European Rugby
England head coach Stuart Lancaster has called up 18 players from Harlequins and Leicester Tigers to the England training squad that is preparing for the tour to New Zealand and the match against the Barbarians after the two clubs completed their domestic seasons.
The players will arrive at the Lensbury Club from Wednesday evening along with Sale Sharks’ James Gaskell and Ross Harrison. Bath Rugby’s Rob Webber joined the squad last night.
Further players will be added from Bath Rugby and London Wasps following the conclusion of the Amlin Challenge Cup final (23 May) and the European Rugby Champions Cup play-off second leg (May 24) with a further group from Saracens and Northampton Saints joining the tour party and the Aviva Premiership final (31 May).
Former England fly-half Jonny Wilkinson says it would be “amazing” to one day coach his country after announcing he will retire from playing this month.
The 34-year-old will play in the Heineken Cup and Top 14 finals for Toulon, at which point he will join the French club’s coaching staff.
Wilkinson played 91 times for England, famously kicking a winning drop-goal in the 2003 World Cup final.
Robbie Diack has been called up to Ireland squad for the summer test tour in Argentina next month, along with fellow South African and Ulster team mate, hooker Rob Herring.
Nine Ulster players have been named among the 30-man squad with Diack set to make his international debut should he be called into action.
The Toyota Cheetahs have lost their second player with the news that fullback Hennie Daniller will move to Italian club Zebre at the end of the current Vodacom Super Rugby season.
Daniller, who has just turned 30, has been released early by the Cheetahs to make the move, and the news comes a few days after French club Oyonnax confirmed they had signed utility back Riaan “True Blue” Smit.
England’s Rugby World Cup hero Jonny Wilkinson announced on Monday that he will retire at the end of the season after Toulon’s Heineken Cup and French Top 14 finals.
“I would like to take this opportunity to formally announce my retirement from playing rugby,” the 34-year-old said in a statement on his club’s website.
“I have an enormous number of people to thank for their support from all around the world but especially here in France and in England,” Wilkinson said.
Saracens booked a place in the Aviva Premiership final at Twickenham when they beat Harlequins 31-17 in the Premiership Semi-final at Allianz Park.
Saracens gradually saw off Harlequins to keep their dreams of winning the double alive.
The lead was evenly shared up until the 60-minute mark, with the league’s best side stretching away in the late May sunshine as Harlequins faded in a bruising encounter. Saracens scored 20 unanswered points in the second half.
A total of 14 possible points went begging as kickers Owen Farrell and Marcelo Bosch toiled with the conditions and their accuracy, but they were not made to pay in the end.
Millennium Stadium with the roof closed
Heineken Cup organisers have announced that the roof of the Millennium Stadium will be closed for next Saturday’s Heineken Cup final between holders, RC Toulon, and Saracens.
The decision is in keeping with previous European club rugby deciders at the famous Cardiff venue. While the atmosphere surrounding a Heineken Cup final is inevitably a special one, the sheer sense of occasion generated when the Millennium Stadium roof is shut adds an extra dimension for players and supporters alike.
Defending champions Castres will play European champions Toulon in a repeat of the 2013 French championship Final, after they edged Montpellier 22-19 after extra-time in an engrossing encounter in Lille on Saturday.
For Castres it was the third successive time they had beaten Fabien Galthie’s Montpellier in the play-offs, after their opponents had got the better of them on their way to the Final in 2011.
While Castres’ South African scrumhalf Rory Kockott scored 14 of their points, it was 35-year-old Fijian centre Seremaia Bai who dropped a rare goal on the stroke of half-time of extra-time that made the difference in the end.
England were left with an anxious wait to discover if full-back Mike Brown would be fit for next month’s tour of New Zealand after the full-back was injured in a gruelling Premiership semifinal on Saturday.
Harlequins star Brown, player of the tournament in this season’s Six Nations Championship, went off with a hamstring injury midway through the second half of his side’s 31-17 semifinal loss away to Saracens.
England coach Stuart Lancaster is already without regular full-back alternatives in Saracens’ Alex Goode and Northampton’s Ben Foden for the first of a three-test series against the world champion All Blacks in Auckland on June 7 as the pair will be required for the Premiership final at Twickenham seven days earlier.
Harlequins’ director of rugby Conor O’Shea, himself a former Ireland full-back, tried to still fears about the health of England’s first-choice No 15.
Cardiff Blues have appointed former New Zealand international hooker, Mark Hammett, as their Director Of Rugby.
The 41-year-old, currently head coach of the Hurricanes, replaces Phil Davies, who left the post in March.
Hammett has agreed a three-year deal and will join up with Cardiff at the end of the Super Rugby season.
London Wasps will take a one-point lead into the second leg of their European Rugby Champions Cup play-off after defeating Stade Francais.
A last-minute Andy Goode penalty gives Wasps a slender advantage for the return fixture in Paris next Saturday.
We have reached the knockout stage of the 2013 / 2014 RaboDirect PRO12 season with the semi-finals to be played this weekend. The first game takes place in Glasgow tonight (Friday) and will see Glasgow Warriors, who finished in second spot on the log host third placed Munster. This is the first time that Glasgow Warriors have hosted a semi-final game in the PRO12.
The second game, to be played tomorrow (Saturday) will be an all Ireland affair with first placed Leinster hosting fourth placed Ulster. Johan Muller, in his last season at the club, will be captaining Ulster and will be hoping for a win to make it one more game before the curtain falls on what has been a very good time for him at the Belfast club.
England and Harlequins fullback Mike Brown has been named Aviva Premiership Rugby Player of the Season at the Aviva Premiership Rugby Awards.
Brown has enjoyed a breakthrough season for both Harlequins and England and was acclaimed by his Director of Rugby, Conor O’Shea, as “a model of consistency, and also a match winner.”
The Harlequins man beat a stellar list of Aviva Premiership Rugby players to the award. He was joined on the shortlist by Vereniki Goneva (Leicester Tigers), Samu Manoa (Northampton Saints), Chris Pennell (Worcester Warriors), Jacques Burger (Saracens) and Dan Braid (Sale Sharks).
Danny Cipriani was named in an England squad for the first time in six years on Thursday as coach Stuart Lancaster has decided the mercurial Sale flyhalf is no longer a risk to his team’s esprit de corps.
Cipriani won all seven of his caps under Brian Ashton in 2008 – having been dropped from what would have been his debut against Scotland after being seen outside a nightclub days before a match.
His career then stalled and after he left Wasps for an ill-starred spell in Australia he has been involved in a series of off-field incidents – including being run over by a bus.
A number of English Premiership Rugby clubs ars said to be looking at playing competitive rugby matches in the United States from next season.
The USA are regulars in the global showpiece event the Rugby World Cup and the USA has been identified as a potentially large market for the game.
Hooker Benjamin Kayser is to miss France’s three-test tour of Australia in June because of a neck injury, his club Clermont said on Wednesday.
Gavin Henson’s hopes of taking part in a Welsh trial match that could see him selected for next month’s two-Test tour of South Africa are set to be crushed.
The 32-year-old Bath centre, one of the most gifted players of his generation but with a chequered past off the field, has not played for Wales since being injured during a 2011 World Cup warm-up game against England in Cardiff.
However, he was included on Tuesday in a 26-man ‘Probables’ squad that will play the ‘Possibles’ at Swansea’s Liberty Stadium on May 30 in the kind of trial match that was a well-know fixture during rugby union’s amateur era but which Wales last used in 2000.
But it now appears unlikely that Henson, and other Wales players at Premiership clubs, will be released for the trial.
Springbok flyhalf Johan Goosen is on the verge of announcing a move to France at the end of the current Vodacom Super Rugby season.
Goosen has been eyeing a move since early in the season, and is likely to sign for French club Racing Metro in the next few days, leaving his Toyota Cheetahs side with a massive dilemma.
English club Gloucester want Nick Mallett as their new Director of Rugby after unexpectedly sacking Nigel Davies, the Gloucester Citizen website reports.
Davies was sacked on Monday after the Cherry and Whites lost to relegated Worcester Warriors at the weekend.
The reluctance of the Home Unions to come to the party is what is preventing a more acceptable global season to be implemented.
It has long been suggested that the selfish nature of Home Union officials – those from England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland – has been at the heart of the troubled and scattered international and domestic calendars.
Scottish Rugby is immensely saddened to learn of the death on Monday night of the former Hawick, Scotland and Lions internationalist Hughie McLeod. He was 81.
Hugh Ferns McLeod was a pioneer, ahead of his time. His achievements as a player were the stuff of legend but, arguably, it was the manner in which he moulded future success in Hawick that marked him as a truly special character.
Hugh drove himself very hard as a player. He set high standards and expected the same of others. Into retirement he still followed a fitness regime which might have proved – no, would have proved too onerous for younger folk. Whether it was cycling, swimming up in Edinburgh or walking, Hughie loved to be active.
Wales coach Warren Gatland has warned that he might consider not selecting England-based players in future.
The Premiership clubs have said they may not release Welsh players for a trial game on 30 May in Swansea as it is not a Test match.
Negotiations are ongoing, but Gatland remains concerned by the continuing uncertainty over player availability for Wales duties.
Wales have named 52 players to prepare for the Probables v Possibles trial match on May 30th, including Bath centre Gavin Henson.
The two 26-man squads will be captained by Alun Wyn Jones (Probables) and Matthew Rees (Possibles) respectively as the sides go head-to-head for their chance to tour South Africa in June.
Following the first of two matches in the build-up to their IRB Junior World Championship next month in New Zealand, Scotland’s under-20 squad take on Wales in Bridgend this (Wednesday) evening.
Edinburgh Rugby have confirmed that nine players will leave the club at the end of the season, at the conclusion of their current contracts.
Among the nine are capped internationalists Lee Jones (Scotland), centre Ben Atiga (All Blacks) and back-row Dimitri Basilaia (Georgia).
Glasgow’s Jonny Gray was named ‘Young Player of the Year’ at the RaboDirect PRO12 Awards evening in the Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh.
Jonny Gray picked up the award after not only breaking into and starting in the Glasgow side, but also into the Scottish national team.
He beat Leinster centre Noel Reid to the title and follows in the footsteps of Tim Visser (Edinburgh Rugby), Toby Faletau (Newport Gwent Dragons), Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors) and Luke Marshall (Ulster Rugby) as the RaboDirect PRO12 ‘Young Player of the Year’.
Expect Morné Steyn to return to do duty in the Springbok No 10 jersey later this year.
It is felt that no South African flyhalf has done enough in Super Rugby this year to convince Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer to replace his favourite No 10 for the upcoming Incoming Tests and Rugby Championship shortly thereafter.
Scott Williams has become the latest player to rule himself out of Wales’s tour to South Africa in June.
The Scarlets’ centre had hoped he would have recovered from the shoulder injury he sustained playing for Wales against Ireland in the Six Nations.
Rory Kockott was once again the star for Castres as the defending champions ended Clermont’s 77-game unbeaten run on home soil in a shock result in Saturday’s Top 14 play-off.
Away winners in France have been rarities all season, but there were upsets in both the weekend’s play-offs.
Jim Carmichael has led speculation that James O’Connor is poised for a controversial return to Australia via the Queensland Reds.
Reds boss Carmichael would not confirm whether O’Connor is set to join the Reds’ in the 2015 Super Rugby roster but admitted he was in the process of addressing their current deficiencies.
Corey Flynn has signed a two year contract with Toulouse in France starting after the current Crusaders season.
This announcement comes on the same day as the All Blacks training squad was released.
Crusaders and Canterbury flyhalf Tyler Bleyendaal has become the latest high-profile New Zealand player to head abroad to continue his career.
He announced he will move to Ireland to play for the Munster at the end of this year.
Premiership Rugby have confirmed that four Semi-finalists for the 2013 /2014 Aviva Premiership Semi-finals later this month.
Now that the final Round of Premiership league matches have been completed the Semi-finalists have been determined.
Saracens will contest the red card shown to flanker Justin Melck during their 31-27 Premiership defeat by Leicester Tigers on Saturday.
The 31-year-old South African was dismissed on 44 minutes by referee Greg Garner for appearing to eye-gouge Tigers hooker Neil Briggs, who said the official had made a mistake.
“We are hugely disappointed,” said Sarries director of rugby Mark McCall. “We will look to have it overturned. It was a dreadful decision.”
England’s leading clubs will not allow players to take part in the Wales trial on Friday, 30 May. The availability of some Wales stars was in any case in doubt because the Aviva Premiership final takes place a day later.
A spokesman said Premiership Rugby’s Wales players would not be free for the trial as it falls outside the International Rugby Board (IRB) window.
But Wales remain hopeful of reaching a deal over England-based players.